Year: 2024

🎄🌟🥳 Merry Christmas…

2024 has been another amazing year, we’ve been bumper to bumper with bookings and have done our best to get to you all. What a pleasure it has been when we have, traveling the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and in our workshop, to look after your pride and joys. May they be, work horses, or for a sunny fun day out. 🗺️ ☀️

A very big thank you to all for your warm welcomes, your generous hospitality and your support. 🫖 🍰

For auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind… it’s been a difficult year for some and our thoughts are with you, as we also remember those we have lost. 😔

We would like to wish each and every one of you, near and far, a wonderful festive season and much success and joy for the year ahead in 2025. 💫

🌟 🎄 Jon & Claire 🎄🌟
xx – https://ift.tt/VYBGgFj

My blogs have gone a little out of order this week, we were in Bishop Auckland, Ingleton & Darlington on Tuesday.

It was great to meet Richard on our call in the morning in Bishop Auckland for work on his 2004 TF 135 (in paint code MBB).

He’d bought the car in July and was unsure on the service history on it despite having various stamps in the book, but no description, so he thought he’d best err on the side of caution and get it sorted.

We carried out a full cambelt service and replaced the alternator belt, all without any issues. We checked over a few things he was concerned about and all now good to go for him and his wife to enjoy.

From there we nipped along to Steve’s new abode in Ingleton, he’d lost a little coolant in his Trophy and it had over-heated in traffic, so was concerned about the proverbial. Fortunately, it was just down to the expansion tank cap having blown. A few checks done and a new tested cap duly replaced. After a chat and a cuppa and fusses with the lovely Truffles we were on our way.

From Steve’s we headed along to Darlington to see Terry and investigate what was occurring with ‘The Chairman’, his MGF 75th Anniversary. Fortunately, we found the issue was nothing more serious than a duff battery, that was still reading 12 volts, but had virtually no amperage there. As it was still under warranty Terry will swap it out for a new one.

Great to see Terry as always, thanks to him for the bottle of fizz and the eggs courtesy of his hens. Omelettes and fizz for Jon’s tea tonight! 🐓

Here we are it’s Friday again and a busy weekend ahead. Have a good one everyone, stay safe if you’re venturing out to do the Christmas shop! 😵‍💫 – https://ift.tt/jvNArLy

Workshop day today…

Paul drove over from Louth in his S reg MGF VVC with 39k on the clock (paint code HFF), having taken ownership in July of this year.

A full cambelt service was carried out, plus alternator belt and new coolant cap. One of the roll-pins was crushed, so this was replaced. Paul had noticed a bit of a problem engaging gears, on inspection we found that the clutch slave-cylinder had gone and was full of manky old fluid, slave-cylinder replaced and fresh fluid flushed through. Paul waited for us to do the work and it was great to have a chat with him while we did.

Richard came over from Sheffield to leave his TF 160 with us for work to be carried out next week, which is booked in for gear cable change, but also has the proverbial suspected head gasket issue, not to worry we’ll get everything done for him while it’s in with us.

Pat drove over, from Wakefield, in his Steptronic to leave it with us for work which is actually booked in for the first week of January, he was supposed to be dropping it nearer the time, but had subsequently booked a holiday, so we offered to store it until then as it would have meant him missing the slot and having to wait a while longer.

It’s booked in for quite a list of work, as he is intending to put it up for sale as just isn’t getting the use out of it, but wants to make sure it’s all done for the next owner.

All in all a busy, but enjoyable & social sort of day, really great to meet everyone and to see fellow MG owners meeting up. – https://ift.tt/7B0xV19

MGF 75th Anniversary in Mulberry – recommission…

Gary had his car delivered to us last weekend from Tollerton, near York, as he was wanting to get it back on the road to be enjoyed again, having been out of action for the last 3 years and unused prior to that for 8 years. He’d taken it to a local garage to have the clutch plus other things assessed and their opinion was a bit of a sorry one, advising that these cars are ‘just scrappers nowadays’.

So we got cracking on Wednesday morning, the garage had said the subframe needed welding up or replacing, not the case at all, it was actually in very good condition. The cambelt service was obviously well overdue so this was the first thing we carried out, including all other service parts.

When it came to firing it up found it was a non-starter. Investigations commenced, and the problem narrowed down to a duff rotar-arm, distributor cap and crank sensor, so these we replaced with new and car eventually fired up.

Full clutch replacement wasn’t necessary, as the problem with the clutch was due to the seals on the slave-cylinder having blown, plus the car is only on 37k, so this was replaced and new fluid flushed through, resulting in a nice smooth pedal once more.

All discs and pads replaced, hydragas pump up, the radio wasn’t working, which was found to be a fuse, new wiper blades and new battery supplied and fitted. Various other little niggles sorted.

Full underfloor treatment carried out, with everything else that that entails. That all took us to Friday afternoon. We then returned this morning to refit everything.

We gave it a blast off with the power-washer when it arrived and today cleaned up the interior, so is looking a little bit better, it was the taken around to our local MOT station.

Originally, Gary thought that just a new rear window was required, it was slightly worse than that when we removed the hard-top and found that a new roof was needed! Fortunately, we knew a man who had one. So lovely to see our friends today who, very kindly, brought it over from Blackburn for us, a great opportunity to have a long overdue catch-up with Maggy, Phil and the beautiful Peppa dog!

So that completes everything on the car and we’re pleased to say is now ready for Gary to come over and collect this coming weekend. The only thing left to be done is the bodywork, which Gary will be taking care of. We look forward to meeting him on Saturday morning.

One that definitely didn’t need to be scrapped, thanks for sending it to us Gary, so great to have saved another. – https://ift.tt/mYS1bQk

A productive, albeit very wet and cold, couple of days in the north east, yesterday and today…

Our call yesterday morning was in Consett for work on Ruth’s TF 160 and her 2003 TF 135 (both paint code LEF).

Head gasket replacement and cambelt service carried out on the 160, Ruth is looking forward to getting out in it again.

Then a cambelt service carried out on the 135.

Although not forecast it absolutely tipped it down, but we got the job done! Thanks to Ruth for the cuppas, it was lovely to meet her and her husband. Thanks to Susan Farley for the recommendation.

Rather than trawl back home we stayed over in Gateshead for the night. So we only had a relatively short commute up Morpeth this morning.

It was great to meet Dave who had asked us to come up for some work on his 1997 MGF VVC (in paint code NAL – White Diamond II) that he’d owned for the past twenty years.

The last couple of MOTs had advised on the rear adjustable arms, we could only get hold of one new, so the worst of the two were replaced, the other one is on back order. The car is on SORN until May, so a date organised to return and fit it. The speedometer was also faulty, as was flicking up and down on the gauge below 30 mph. So we replaced one of the three sections, which has made it a lot better, however we do need to source at least one other of the sections, which again will be fitted on our next visit. The clutch slave-cylinder had also blown its seals and was full of old black fluid, so slave-cylinder replaced and new fluid flushed through.

Thanks to Dave for a cracking brew and we look forward to seeing him again in a few months time.

From there we headed over to Stockton-on-Tees, for another clutch slave-cylinder replacement on Mike’s 2005 TF 135 (paint code MBB). This one had also blown its seals, new fluid flushed through and clutch-pedal nice and smooth once again.

Didn’t meet Mike as he was at work, but glad to get his MG sorted for him.

On our way home now, with a quick call over to see the Tees Barrage, as we were so near, a very impressive piece of engineering. – https://ift.tt/qhrMxKt

Monday morning found us over near Sheffield for work on Mike’s car that we’d last seen a few years ago for clutch replacement. He’d had a fail with the latest MOT on a couple of things.

We replaced the rear brake lines, and had taken along a CAT and Lambda sensor, as one of the issues was with the emissions. On code reading found that only a new Lambda was needed. So a shorter day for us and a cheaper bill for Mike. Good to see him again briefly between his work calls.

Tuesday morning Jon went back over to Sleaford for some further work on Alex’s TF 160. The VVC plunger was leaking oil quite badly so both plunger gaskets were replaced along with a preemptive oil-cooler bypass, at Alex’s request. I didn’t go this time, so the pic is from when we went over in July.

On Wednesday morning we headed over to Whitley where it was great to meet John for work on his 2003 TF 135 (paint code LQW).

Full cambelt service carried out, which was well overdue, having last been done in 2008, plus replacement of the underfloor coolant-pipes for stainless. Bit of a nippy one so were pleased to have John’s workshop to work in.

This morning we headed down to Wolverhampton, where it was great to meet Tim and his wife Sharon for work on their 2005 TF 160 (in paint code CQC) with only 17k on the clock.

Tim hadn’t been using the car over the past five years, and had been stored in his garage, with periodical runs up and down the drive to keep things moving. He decided it was time to think about getting it back on the road. He’d attended the Triumph show at Stoneleigh earlier in the year and on chatting to a few people they had recommended he get in touch with us, so big thanks to those who recommended us.

Cambelt service was carried out this morning, along with preemptive head gasket replacement as he just wanted to have peace of mind knowing it was all done for him and Sharon to enjoy days out in the car again into the welsh mountains and surrounding areas. A very nice example, we wish them lots of fun!

From there we headed over to Pelsall, just outside of Walsall. Jonathan had recently purchased a very nice example of a 2003 TF 160 and very unfortunately on his run back home the car lost power and had ground to a halt. So he asked if we could go over and assess the damage and discuss the way forward.

So this afternoon, on our investigation, we found that the alternator belt had given way and had subsequently taken out the cambelt. We stripped the engine down and found that 15 valves were bent, but the worst one being that one of the valve heads had snapped off and beaten the living daylights out of the cylinder head and had punched a hole in one of the pistons. Big ouch!!

But it’s nothing that can’t be sorted, plus it’s too much of a decent example to let go to scrap, therefore a plan discussed with Jonathan and the car will be delivered to our workshop for the repairs to be carried out.

Now on a very slow trawl back up the country, made worse by some biblical downpours. That’s us done for this week, family day tomorrow. Have a cracking weekend everyone, hope the weather isn’t too dismal wherever you may be. – https://ift.tt/Q42iygu

Workshop week apart from a local one on Thursday morning…

Steve drove over from Keighley on Sunday to leave his TF 160 with us. We got cracking with the investigation of an oil leak on Monday morning and a couple of other things that he wanted sorting on his, always very tidy, MG. Now ready for him to collect tomorrow.

Mike drove down from Sunderland on Tuesday morning, in his 1998 MGF 143 (paint code MBB), for initially just a head gasket replacement, but then found that the cambelt service was overdue, so this was carried out for him too. Before he brought it to us he’d previously changed both coolant sensors, then once firing it up, although not over heating on our diagnostics, the gauge was heading over to the red zone. We tried a new sensor but that also came up with the same, so we tried a secondhand old sensor, which worked perfectly.

Good to meet Mike and have lots of chats while we worked, bit of a longer day than anticipated, but glad to have him all sorted.

John had his 2002 TF 160 (paint code JFV) delivered to us that afternoon from Durham, and we got cracking with this one on Wednesday morning.

Head gasket replacement and cambelt service carried out, along with replacement of the Lambda sensor, all four of the cam oil-seals and a couple of other things done to get this one all sorted for him. We look forward to meeting him, on Sunday, when he comes down to collect.

On Thursday morning we nipped over the Humber bridge to Barton-on-Humber as Jez’s MGF 120 mpi (in paint code HAM) had suffered from the proverbial. We replaced all the gaskets, along with two of the cam oil-seals and a set of new HT leads as the ones on the car had done their time. The car had undergone a previous head gasket replacement and had been fitted with a Mk II elastomer, after years of trouble-free motoring it developed symptoms and on his inspection found coolant to be pouring out between the block and cylinder head, so was in no doubt as to what had occurred.

Thanks to Jez for the heated garage to work in, what luxury! An early finish and such a beautiful afy I decided to walk home from there. We’ve got his TF 1.6 booked in for preemptive head gasket replacement, next spring, ahead of his holiday over to France in the car with his wife.

That brings us to today, Friday. Steven drove over to us first thing this morning in his 2003 TF 135 ‘Cool Blue’ (paint code MBB) for an oil change, gearbox oil change, clutch slave-cylinder replacement and flush through of the old clutch fluid.

Great to meet Steven and have interesting chats, he’s owned many cars over the years, including MGBs and a MGBGT including a TD, back in the day. Hope he enjoys his weekend visiting relatives in the area, and we look forward to seeing him again next year for the minor service. Thanks to him for the coffees and other bits too that he brought along for us.

Good to see Gary again who drove over, from Pudsey, in his 2001 MGF Trophy 160 today, for a check up on the suspension that, he says, isn’t feeling the best, especially on uneven surfaces, as in ‘bouncing’ down the road rather than absorbing any bumps. The hydragas units were approximately at the correct ride-height and had plenty of bounce left in them, although it still had very old and tired shock-absorbers. It was decided that a new set of dual-acting shock-absorbers would be better suited.

A couple of last minute cancellations, but at least we were able to fit in a few others that were patiently waiting for a slot, resulting in a productive week with lots of great people and their fab MGs.

Bit of a chilly week, but at least it looks to be a milder weekend ahead for most. So on that note have a great weekend everyone near and far. 🗺️ – https://ift.tt/w8HUor6

Butterknowle, near Bishop Auckland was our last visit of this week, and what an enjoyable days work it was too.

We’d previously taken away the cylinder head from Ken’s TF 160, that had suffered from a blown out spark plug, subsequently stripping the threads, obviously with the engine still running it had bashed the end of the electrode in, so Jon helicoiled the hole and refitted the plug.

This morning the cylinder head was refitted along with cambelt, water pump, tensioner and other service items. Car up running with a very smooth and quiet engine.

Mervyn came over in his LE 500 (number 394) for us to carry out a full cambelt service.

Really great to see Mervyn and Ken again and have a good chat. Thanks to Mervyn for bringing along the Tunnock’s!

It was so good to have some other lovely company too in the field opposite, Roo and her field mates, just beautiful.

We’re on our way home and not too far to go now. Hope everyone has a great weekend wherever you may be and those in the vicinity of storm Bert, stay safe. – https://ift.tt/O2qpkJX